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Australian deep sea expedition dives into the abyss and discovers sea creatures from your nightmares

This bright red spiny crab sports an armour of spikes tailored
to protect it from the dangers of the deep.
These are not actually true crabs but related more to hermit
crabs, although this hermit has traded in its shell for gnarly
spikes. Credit: Asher Flatt

Last month, a group of 40 scientists from Museums Victoria launched an expedition called Sampling the Abyss into the deep sea off Australia’s east coast.

What they found may keep you up at night.

During their 31-day journey, the team of scientists visited an unexplored area of the Pacific Ocean, where they photographed previously unknown sea creatures that live up to 4,000 metres deep in some of the darkest and most treacherous waters on Earth.

The team used "high-tech multi-beam sonar" for mapping purposes and lowered nets so deep it took seven hours to reach the ocean floor.

The expedition’s chief scientist Dr. Tim O’Hara noted, “Australia’s deep-sea environment is larger in size than the mainland, and until now, almost nothing was known about life on the abyssal plain.”

One-third of the creatures they found have never been seen by humans and run the gambit from extremely odd to just plain creepy.

Just some of the examples they discovered, according to the team’s media release, are a “coffinfish with a fishing rod on its head, giant anemone-sucking sea spiders, a Blob fish (the cousin of Mr. Blobby, voted the world’s ugliest animal), a Shortarse Feelerfish, flesh-eating crustaceans, zombie worms, a Cookie-cutter shark with teeth arranged like the serrated edge of a steak knife, a herd of sea pigs (the ocean’s vacuum cleaners), a spectacular Ferrari-red crab with large spines, bioluminescent sea stars, carnivorous sponges, tripodfish that perch on stilt-like legs and a multitude of microscopic critters.”

If you want to see some of their findings up close, a selection of the creatures will be on display at Melbourne Museum in Australia. Or, if you’re like us, you’ll want to stick to checking out these awe-inspiring photos.